According to The Asahi Shimbun, cancer patients in a palliative care unit at a hospital here are ticking off their “bucket list” destinations or attending events that are otherwise impossible to reach by using a virtual reality headset.
The experience, a limited provision at the Ashiya Municipal Hospital as part of a health-care research project, has largely been seen as a positive experience by recipients.
Hospital officials are hoping the practice will help improve the patients’ quality of life in their final days.
A 40-year-old woman staying in the hospital was given an opportunity to watch a VR video recording of a concert that had been held late last year. The sound from the device’s headphone was in perfect sync with the movements of the performers, each playing a flute, a piano and percussion.
“The sense of reality goes to a different level when sound is added,” the woman said. “That allows me, even as I am staying in this hospital, to take pleasure in thinking about what I will be doing next.”
A VR system allows a user to feel as if he or she were really attending a scene, as its 3-D imagery rotates in accordance with the orientation of the user’s head.
The study involves fixing a goggle-type image display on the head of a patient, who is asked to use a remote control to choose, for example, where they want to go.
The device works with Google LLC’s video software app that allows the user to step into views and landscapes of choice anywhere around the world. It can also be operated with the imagery of a patient’s home or other fond places if image data taken with a special 360-degree camera is available.
The VR system is the brainchild of Kazuyuki Niki, an Osaka University assistant professor, who also works as a pharmacist for the Ashiya Municipal Hospital. He got the inspiration for using VR technology when he learned last year about a case where a sickroom space for a patient who could no longer go home was remodeled by using a curtain and bedclothes brought in from home.
Niki started the practice last autumn after obtaining the approval of the hospital’s ethics committee as a clinical study project.
The first to receive the VR experience was a woman who liked mountaineering. She enjoyed views from the peak of a mountain that she had wished to climb.
Others have come up with various requests. One “went to see” a park in their native Kyushu, to which they wanted to donate a cherry tree. Another “revisited” Kyoto, where they had been as a newlywed.
Yoshinobu Matsuda, director of the hospital’s Department of Palliative Care, said that most of the VR experience recipients were apparently content.
The goggle-type device, however, weighs about 500 grams, so it is a lot of work for a physically weakened patient to roll around the head under its weight. It should also be noted that patients in palliative care are prone to dizziness or feelings of nausea because of their diseases, drugs and other factors.
The woman who watched the concert video requested improvements.
“I find it painful to remain seated,” she said. “But if I lie on my back, the sky or the ceiling is about the only thing that comes into my view.”
Niki has started a separate, joint study at Gratia Hospital in Minoo, Osaka Prefecture, in February. The research project will hopefully address a total of 20 subjects, ask them questions before and after the VR experience and study changes in their physical and mental conditions.
“I hope the VR experience will help improve the patients’ quality of life, although its effectiveness has yet to be evaluated,” Niki said.

Australian telco Pivotel has jumped on the growing satellite constellation bandwagon, saying it will soon be able to provide internet coverage "from virtually anywhere on the planet".
Pivotel just signed on as a launch partner for Iridium Communications, the owner of a satellite constellation known as Iridium NEXT.
There are now four satellites in the NEXT constellation, and Iridium has pegged $3 billion to have another four join it this year.
Together, they will provide a service known as Iridium Certus. The company says it will provide "high speed mobile data coverage to the entire Earth, connecting oceans, deserts, airways and polar regions".
​http://www.afr.com/business/telecommunications/aussie-telco-pivotel-to-bring-the-internet-to-virtually-anywhere-on-the-planet-20180315-h0xjhs

According to The Australian Financial Review, conglomerate Wesfarmers has announced its plan to spin grocery giant Coles off into a separate ASX entity.
Research published by Credit Suisse on Thursday put the value of Coles at $19.4 billion. Wesfarmers has a market capitalisation of $46.7 billion.
The demerger is expected to be completed in the 2018-19 year.
Wesfarmers will retain a 20 per cent stake in the business "to support strategic alignment between Wesfarmers and Coles in relation to various growth initiatives, including in the areas of data and digital".
​http://www.afr.com/business/retail/wesfarmers-to-spin-off-coles-into-separate-asx-company-20180315-h0xjga

According to The Australian Financial Review, new home buyers at Mirvac's housing estates in Sydney and Brisbane will be the first to benefit from energy efficient housing after the listed developer struck a $90 million finance deal with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
Built-in solar and battery storage systems, high-grade insulation, LED lighting and energy efficient appliances will be rolled out to more than 300 family homes of three and four bedrooms.
The roll-out includes 5.1kW rooftop solar installations coupled with 10kWh battery systems, sufficient to meet up to 90 per cent of a typical household's energy consumption, according to the CEFC.
"The CEFC's finance will mean this clean energy technology is already included in the homes during construction, at no additional cost to the home buyer," said chief executive Ian Learmonth.
Mirvac has set itself a target to be net positive in energy and water by 2030. It is also aiming to include technology within its housing developments which helps people towards 'zero bills living'.
​http://www.afr.com/real-estate/clean-energy-fund-powers-mirvac-housing-20180313-h0xfvk

According to The Australian Financial Review, a team of Australian engineers has already developed and flown the next generation of aerospace technology: the scramjet, which enables hypersonic flight.
"Supersonic flight is when you break the speed of sound, and achieve speeds over Mach 1 [1235km/h]," says Professor Michael Smart from the Centre for Hypersonics at The University of Queensland. "Hypersonic flight starts at Mach 5."
Mach 5 is about 6170km/h, but the UQ team has already tested a scramjet at Mach 7.5, or 9260km/h. The team – which shares technology with NASA and was previously in the HIFiRE hypersonics project with the US and Australian governments – has made a total of seven test flights, at Woomera, SA, and in Norway, with three Australian-made scramjets.

According to the Nikkei Asian Review, the number of startups created to commercialize results of research and development at Japanese universities rose 13% in fiscal 2017 to surpass 2,000 for the first time, a survey by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry shows.
The total for the year ending this month reached 2,093. Though information technology businesses make up about half of Japan's overall startup scene, the biggest category of university ventures consists of biotech, health care and medical equipment at 659, followed by IT at 614.
The University of Tokyo spawned the highest number at 245, followed by Kyoto University at 140 and the University of Tsukuba at 98. Nagoya University jumped to seventh place from 12th in the fiscal 2016 survey, raising its number of startups to 69.
University-affiliated ventures that have gone on to become Tokyo-listed companies include biotech names Peptidream and Euglena -- the former provides a drug discovery database while the latter develops food and fuel from algae -- as well as machine learning software developer PKSHA Technology. All three grew out of the University of Tokyo.
Kyoto University is known for its stem cell research center headed by Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka. Megakaryon, a Kyoto-based startup, is drawing on research from one of the university's teams of scientists as it develops a way to mass-produce platelets -- essential for blood clotting -- from reprogrammed cells.
Despite the healthy growth, Japan still trails other countries including the U.S. in university startups. The ministry will unveil a public database of such ventures Friday, looking to encourage more cooperation between industry and academia.

According to The Asahi Shimbun, Taxi dispatching just put the pedal to the metal, with NTT Docomo Inc. developing a system that utilizes artificial intelligence to find areas where people are milling about but cabs are in short supply.
Based on base-station data that connects cellphones, the system finds locations where people are gathered and analyzes the past boarding records of taxis in the area. It then estimates the needed number of cabs.
Tokyo Musen Kyodo Kumiai, a group of taxi companies in Tokyo, and Nagoya-based Tsubame Taxi Group began using the system on Feb. 15. They expect that taxis with “vacant” signs will converge more readily around areas where many customers are waiting, which will lead to an improvement in service.
According to NTT Docomo, a map displayed on a device installed at the driver’s seat is divided into 500-meter square grids. In each area, the number of taxis needed in the next 30 minutes is shown.
The data is updated every 10 minutes. Even en route to a destination, drivers can know which lanes have more demand.
They can also ascertain areas where the number of people suddenly increased other than train stations where people are constantly flocking about, such as when events are held or trains are delayed.
The AI system will gradually be installed in a total of 1,350 cabs at Tokyo Musen group and 1,150 at Tsubame Taxi.
At an experiment conducted for four months from December 2016, taxis equipped with the system earned about 1,400 yen ($US 13.10) more on average per day.

According to The Australian Financial Review, international demand is growing, prices are high and Australia is well out in front as the second biggest producer in the world behind only the domestic-focused Japanese industry.
Australian Wagyu Association members expect to double the national herd size to 600,000 in the next five years and that growth doesn't account for new entrants.
Full-blood, purebred and crossbred wagyu production is forecast to go from about 30,000 tonnes last year to 74,000 tonnes in 2022.
Australian Wagyu Association chief executive Matt McDonagh said about 90 per cent of all the wagyu produced was exported to high-end markets.
"We think over the next five to 10 years we'll certainly go from 2 per cent of the national herd being joined to wagyu bulls up towards 5 per cent," he said.

According to Australia Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), Austrade will hold ‘virtual showcasing’ sessions - a series of individual presentations - followed by sample tastings at Austrade’s Fukuoka and Sapporo offices in Japan, as well as customers' offices located outside of the Fukuoka and Sapporo areas. For these sessions Austrade will be targeting 10 or more buyer groups from key retail and wholesale companies who have a strong presence, product sourcing and distribution in Kyushu and Hokkaido (Date: 21 May 2018 - 1 Jun 2018).
The program is designed to increase the presence of retail oriented premium Australian made food and beverage products already imported into Japan by targeting new regional opportunities.
This virtual showcase program doesn't require participants' physical presence but only require product information and samples for testing the market.
For information on the Retail sector and key trends in Kyushu and Hokkaido, Japan please refer to the following insights brochure.https://www.austrade.gov.au/ArticleDocuments/5838/Retail%20insight%20Hokkaido%20and%20Kyushu%20FINAL.pdf.aspx

According to The Australian Financial Review, Japanese trading giant Itochu has signed a deal with Queensland company Vitrinite to develop a new coking coal mine in central Queensland, in a further sign of the resurgence of the coal sector since the global downturn.
While Indian energy company Adani struggles to secure finance for its $16.5 billion Carmichael mine – which plans to export thermal coal from the Galilee Basin to use in its power stations on the subcontinent – there is strong investor interest for metallurgical or coking coal, which is used for steel production.
The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed spending on mineral exploration in the December quarter was $64.3 million – a 27 per cent increase on the same period in 2016.
The deal between Itochu and Vitrinite is significant because it involves the development of a new greenfield tenement in the Bowen Basin following the discovery of a potential 123 million tonnes of metallurgical coal with the deposit promising some of the highest-quality coking coal ever found in Australia.